Hammergun

Correct, it is a Birmingham action. Non-ejector. If it were an ejector it would be twice the advertised price!

The cold blue s really just for touching up scuffs. It doesnt make for a durable coating itself.

Shooting boooks, £4 each or £10 for all 3 The Rough Shooters Handbook - Guy Smith Pigeon Shooting - John Gray Practical Pigeon Shooting - Peter Hall All in good used condition with dust jackets Postage at cost PM for details

On behalf of a friend, Lurcher dog, (no breeding provenance) entire and approx 4yo, has done a little work but would need bringing on again. Free to a good home. PM for details. Location North York Moors, Friend's son moved away to town and lost interest.

Go on you can have it for FREE if you pay postage............. Just want rid of it.

Brady Bridle leather cartridge belt, Cost about £55. 12 gauge, Good nick, £30 including postage.

Also just found Deer Stalking by Edmund Luxmore, new £5 including postage.

Poached, crack into water which has just been taken off the boil and bring to the boil until cooked the desired amount. Serve on toast with salt and black pepper, or with Hollandaise sauce to make eggs benedict.

Practical Pigeon Shooting by Peter Hall, loads of useful info and pics, £6 Good condition Pigeon Shooting by John Gray, ex library good condition, informative book lots of pictures, £5 Birds Boots and Barrels by Giles Catchpole and Bryn Parry, New and unread £10 Postage at cost

Large piece of PVC lined canvas for making fishing bags / game bags from. Left over from a project. Actually two pieces sewn together as part of the manufacturing process making two usable pieces approx 2' x 4'6" and 18" x 4'. Bit dusty and two slight stains from storage which will probably wash off (not tried). £5 ono to clear. Bargain for someone! Can post.

Hang the same as pheasants, according to taste and coldness of the weather. Woodcock should not be drawn but cooked guts in and everything is edible (the bird empties itself before flight so there is no foul matter in it). The meat is fairly dry so it should have fat bacon over the breast and legs and should be cooked covered with foil for all but the last few minutes of cooking. They are delicious basted with plenty of butter and served on thick crusty toast.

The "dry pie" you refer to is called a raised game pie and is made by making a water crust pastry case inside a metal pork pie ring and filling it with game meat, sausage meet and gelatin, then putting a pastry top on. The pie ring keeps the cylindrical shape when cooking. Look on the net. There will be plenty of recipes for both.

I have seen later Geco hammerless but they all seem to have a pistol grip stock. The Prince of Wales stock on yours looks much finer on a game gun IMO. I thought there would be plenty of hunting in India, or is it the reserve of the Maharajahs?

In that case more likely than not confiscated from Germany at the end of the war by a British or Indian officer with an eye for fine guns. If it is in good condition would over here probably fetch about £500 or more to the right person, possibly more in Germany. The decoration is extremely fine and well executed. Hammer guns were still popular on the continent well after they had been largely supplanted by hammerless in Britain. You need to find a suitable shotgun/rifle sling to complete it. It would probably originally have been fitted with a plain-ish black or dark brown leather sling. Continental guns were usually fitted with slings as the style of shooting is more rough / walked up shooting as opposed to driven game as in the UK.

Most hammer guns have rebounding locks which prevent the hammers contacting the firing pins unless the trigger is pulled. Previous posters have commented on having to let the hammers back in order to open the gun with the lever. This really is not an issue provided it is done in a safe manner (gun pointing away from people into air). People would do well to remember that with a hammerless gun, the action is cocked once the gun is closed! You must not use 2 3/4 cartidges unless it is chambered for them, nitro proofed or not. If your cartridges are too long the ends will protrude into the forcing cones causing high stresses in this area when fired. The result of this may not be visually apparent. If you are unsure what cartridge length it takes, your gunsmith will be able to tell you. Some continental hammerguns will actually take 2 3/4" cartridges as the standard continental size was 70mm, but do not assume this to be so.

Early German made guns are often overlooked but are extremely well made. Nice piece. Quite rare to find them over here. Made (or sold by) Gustav Genschow in Hamburg, Germany (see website). Early 20th Century, probably one of their first guns made. Could have come into the UK when confiscated by the British Military in the First or Second World War. Nice piece like that may have been kept by a British army officer. Been a top quality gun in its day, with the German side actions. Could be quite valuable to the right person today.

Yes in theory but you would have a job trying to buy any.

Anything handed into the police will get scrapped unless it is of high value (usually stolen and in that case they will attempt to trace the rightful owner), or of any significant historical interest. Anything handed into a gunsmith or dealer is signed over to them, becoming their property to do what they want with, be it sell on, destroy or break for spares. Many gunsmiths are asked for short lengths of damascus barrels (such as about 2 inches or so) for interest and can usually provide you with them if you are intetested. You won't be able to buy complete barrels or components unless you are a RFD.

Many hammerguns have what are termed as "damascus" barrels, and in fact anything before about 1890 would have had them originally anyway, but you may come across them where the barrels have been replaced. Until the 1920s, when the manufacturing process had all but been superseded by new steelmaking technology, bars of malleable iron were forged in budles (known as "faggoting"). For general use, terms such as "Best", "Best Best" and "Treble Best" were used which referred to the number of times the iron bar was faggoted (bundles of bar forged together and stretched). Early gun barrels were faggoted once (such as 17th and 18th century pieces). Later guns were faggoted twice or three times. This is known as Damascus steel. The procress was also used for anything else where a grade of steel with high tensile strength was requried, along with a fine forged consistency, such as steel cutlery, knives, scissors and in fact anything precision made prior to the devemopment of high quality forged steel production. Each time the steel was faggoted, the tensile strenght inproved and consistency became more uniform. It created a grain by stretching the inclusions of impurities in the metal and improving tensile strength, however the metal was much weaker when stressed across the grain. To improve this, the forged strips were spirally wound to form tubes. The effect is similar to how cord and wire is used to reinforce tyres.

Squirrels, like most rodents, are omniverous and can be scavengers.

"reasonable excuse" is only a provision for despatching injured animals by the roadside and does not apply for general shooting, so stick to 50 feet at minimum to be safe.

You can also get another kind of hammer when drawing hot water from the DHW header tank and you get a Bang Bang Bang Bang at several times per second. This is caused by the float valve and tank oscilating at its natural frequency, and letting a little water out at each oscillation. It can be cured by changing the layout of the tank or replacing the float valve for an equilibrium float valve.

If changing the washer doesn't stop it, try adding extra pipe brackets or failing that stuffing a few rags under the pipe in various places to alter the harmonics.

Damascus Hammergun, back action by T Page Wood. 30" barrels Nitro Proof. Barrels were re-browned about 10 years ago. Nicely engraved on the action. Original heel plate. Forend wood needs some minor repair as screws have rusted through. Barrels lapped out and the gun was reproofed about 20 years ago and used little since but pitting remains especially at the muzzle end (hence price), however there is a good wall thickness and the gun passed proof in that state. Location N Yorks, near York. £150 ono for quick sale

I assume you mean the original price when new - The only real way is to try and get hold of some old catalogues. One of the Spanish gun enthusiasts websites is the best place but you will need someone fluent in Spanish to help. There may be archives held for Armas Erbi - but again you'll need someone fluent in the lingo! You could search for city archives from Elgoibar for more info. The current value may not correlate to the original purchase cost however due to desirability and condition.